Iran welcomes Egypt's readiness to restore diplomatic relations. Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic Ali Khamenei said this on Monday at a meeting with Sultan of Oman Haitham bin Tariq Al Said.
"We welcome this position, we have no problems in this regard," the IRNA news agency quoted Khamenei as saying. This is how the Iranian leader commented on the sultan of Oman's statement that Egypt is ready to restore relations with Iran.
Haitham bin Tariq Al Said arrived in Tehran on May 28 for a two-day visit. In the Iranian capital, he met with President of the Islamic Republic Ebrahim Raisi. As Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Albusaidi noted, Tehran and Muscat "continue to seek solutions to reduce tensions in the region."
On May 21, the sultan of Oman visited Cairo and held a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Shortly before that, Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed reported, citing sources, that Oman had launched a mediation initiative to help restore relations between Iran and Egypt.
The relations between Cairo and Tehran were severed in 1980 after the Islamic revolution, when Egypt granted asylum to the deposed Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In addition, the bilateral relations were affected when the Arab republic signed a peace agreement with Israel. The countries started to normalize relations only in 2010, but they have never been officially restored.
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Based on materials from TASS